UFOs: skeptics, disclosure, and contact

[pigfarmer]

Military's UFO-Hunting Aerial Surveillance System Detailed In Report

Military’s UFO-Hunting Aerial Surveillance System Detailed In Report​

A GREMLIN system is first being used to establish baseline data of aerial activity around a sensitive site so that anomalies can be better spotted in the future.
Howard Altman

DoD document

The Pentagon provided new details today about how its deployable, readily reconfigurable suite of sensors called GREMLIN works to help set the stage for figuring out what unidentified objects in our skies are and are not, if they appear at all.


In its annual report released on Thursday, the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) shared a graphic that gives us our best look yet at what its GREMLIN system is. It was developed by Georgia Tech Research Institute specifically to help gather data about so-called unidentified anomalous phenomena, or UAPs. That’s the DoD’s new parlance for what used to be called UFOs.

When AARO last discussed GREMLIN back in March, the office said the system was designed to provide “hyperspectral surveillance to try to capture these incidents.” However, no details were given about what kind of sensors were being used to capture data across different areas of the electromagnetic spectrum simultaneously.

Now deployed, GREMLIN includes 2D and 3D radars, long-range electro-optical/infrared sensors, GPS, satellite communications, aircraft tracking systems and radio frequency spectrum monitoring. It all feeds into a central node where the data can be fused to get a better sense of what’s out there. The system is something of an integrated air defense apparatus ‘in a box,’ allowing for multiple sensor types and open-source data to be captured on single targets within its view.
AARO began using GREMLIN “for detecting, tracking, and characterizing UAP,” the report notes. “GREMLIN demonstrated functionality and successfully collected data during a test event in March of 2024. The next step for GREMLIN is a 90-day pattern of life collection at a site of national security.”

AARO’s official logo. (DoD)

One of AARO’s first missions for GREMLIN is to help establish a baseline for what would be considered normal activity, especially because so many UAPs have been reported either through sensors near military installations or by pilots. According to today’s report, nearly half of the 485 UAP sightings reported from May 1, 2023 to June 1, 2024 came from locations near U.S. military assets and sensors at home and abroad. This could be due to the objects being tasked to surveil those locations or due to sensor bias, as these areas are more heavily monitored than others, or more likely a mix of both.
East Asian seas were the hottest spot, providing 100 reports of which AARO resolved 40 as balloons or drones. AARO placed the remaining cases in Active Archive due to insufficient information to facilitate analysis, the report states.
“Right now we have this geographic bias where we are getting reports near the national security sites, but we also have a bias from pilots and other security personnel,” AARO’s new Director Jon Kosloski told reporters today. “So we want to have a better understanding of what normal looks like near those national security sites, and then eventually we’ll be expanding our baseline investigations to other areas in the US to look at what normal looks like away from national security sites.”

AARO
Kosloski refused to divulge where GREMLIN is located.
“It’s currently deployed, he explained. “We’d rather not say exactly where it is, because we want it to be an unbiased test, and don’t want to invite folks to come and do flyovers and test against the system.”
The location was chosen, he added, “because of the environment. We expect there to be a lot of variety in the types of things that we’re going to see. And there have been UAP reports in that general area. And we’re trying to build a baseline.”
Once a pattern of life is established, the report suggested that AARO could use that to go back over some of the 444 cases placed in the Active Archive “because they lacked sufficient data to facilitate analysis.”
All told, AARO found that 49 cases during the reporting period were objects like balloons, birds and drones. “An additional 243
cases were recommended for closure as of June 1, 2024, pending peer review,” the report pointed out. “These cases also resolved to prosaic objects including balloons, birds, UAS, satellites, and aircraft.”
“AARO determined 21 cases merit further analysis by its IC [intelligence community] and science and technology (S&T) partners,” the report acknowledged.

AARO
One thing AARO did not find was any indication that UAPs are either extraterrestrial or from an adversary here on Earth.
“AARO has discovered no verifiable evidence of extraterrestrial beings, activity or technology,” Kosloski said. “None of the cases resolved by AARO have pointed to advanced capabilities or breakthrough technologies.”
Just because no evidence has been found of breakthrough technology does not mean the possibility doesn’t exist, he emphasized.
“There are definitely anomalies,” Kosloski explained. “We have not been able to draw the link to extraterrestrials.”
“We’re not ruling it out,” he added.
Though the report found that there were 18 incidents of drones near U.S. nuclear infrastructure, weapons, and launch sites, Kosloski said there is no indication that either those or reported UAPs belonged to adversaries.
“We have not been able to correlate any UAP activity to adversarial collection activities or advanced technologies,” he posited.
The report also didn’t cover the drone incursions over Langley Air Force Base last December we were the first to report back in March. You can read more about it in our exclusive story here.
“It was known to be UAV activity, so we were there in a supporting role, but it was not our responsibility to address that,” Kosloski stated.

AARO’s new Director Jon Kosloski (DoD Image)
As it has been since UFOs first burst into the public’s consciousness back in the 1950s, the stigma of reporting them continues to keep people from coming forward to say what they’ve seen. Kosloski said he is concerned that could give adversaries an opening to collect data over sensitive locations. This is something TWZ has long highlighted as a major strategic awareness failure.
Kosloski is “concerned that somebody could use the potential stigma to try and take advantage of that. If there is a stigma associated with reporting UAP, then that’s an opportunity for the adversary to maybe conduct collection operations and not have folks report on it. But we haven’t seen evidence of that yet.”
In an effort to help diminish the stigma of reporting UAPs, Kosloski said AARO is working with partners in the intelligence community and other government agencies to downgrade the classification ratings of incidents to make them more available to the public. Video of some of the cases AARO has discussed publicly will be released on Nov. 19th.
“But there are interesting cases that I – my physics and engineering background and time in the IC – I do not understand, and I don’t know anybody else who understands them,” he said.
“The hope is that we will be able to release as much of that content as we can to the public so that we can get help in resolving them,” Kosloski commented.
More quickly and accurately identifying what some of the objects are is the hope for GREMLIN as well.
AARO has been under heavy ridicule by some proponents of UAP action, with claims that it is part of a coverup and has not executed its duties in good faith. Kosloski has taken over the office from its previous head, Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick, who has repeatedly stood by his office’s investigations and methods.


The release of AARO’s latest report also comes a day after another UAP was held on Capitol Hill, with witnesses making claims that appear at odds with AARO’s past findings, especially in regard to secret UAP recovery programs.
Another congressional hearing on November 19th will put AARO and its latest findings specifically in the spotlight.

Contact the author: howard@thewarzone.com

 

[nivek]

Police collect wreckage of 'octagonal-shaped UFO' shot down by a US F-16 fighter jet​

Newly released documents have revealed that Canadian police collected debris of a UFO that was shot down over Lake Huron last year.

The object was taken down on February 12, 2023 by a US F-16 fighter jet, marking the third such incident over North America that month.

Witnesses described the object as 'octagonal' with strings hanging off it before the jet fired two missiles, striking the UFO that then slowly descended into Canadian waters.

Documents obtained by CTVNews.ca stated that 'wreckage' was found on 'the shoreline of Lake Huron' weeks after search efforts were suspended.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) partnered with the American and Canadian Coast Guard to conduct a brief search following the incident.

By February 16, it was called off due to 'deteriorating weather and the low probability of recovery, according to an RCMP statement.

But the partially redacted emails acquired by CTVNews.ca revealed that the RCMP collected 'both material and a module' from the site of the incident roughly three weeks after the object was shot down.

National security officials have criticized the effort for a 'lack of transparency.'

'The module is from a company who sells weather monitoring equipment,' a senior RCMP member told a Canadian military brigadier-general in an email sent on March 13, 2023, according to CTVNews.ca.

'It will be analyzed to determine if there is anything unusual with it but I suspect not given the size. Whether or not it is from the shoot down is uncertain,' the email continued.

An RCMP spokesperson further confirmed the debris collection in a statement to CTVNews.ca.

'The RCMP confirms that debris was recovered from the shores of Lake Huron, and we continue to work in close collaboration with our domestic and international partners in furthering the investigation,' the spokesperson said Friday.

'As the investigation is ongoing, additional details cannot be provided at this time.'

The RCMP would not confirm whether the debris was ever definitively linked to the Lake Huron object, and Canada's Department of National Defense also declined to comment, CTVNews.ca reported.

Iain Boyd, director of the Center for National Security Initiatives at the University of Colorado Boulder, said that the lack of transparency could be because the US and Canadian governments were embarrassed of shooting down objects that did not pose national security threats.

'To have expended significant military time and resources to shoot down benign objects does not look good, even though there may have been many factors we are still unaware of,' he speculated to CTVNews.ca.

'I am not surprised that the Canadian government did not share more information about the Lake Huron debris.'

The incident, and three others that month, occurred just days after the downing of a Chinese surveillance balloon on February 4, which garnered widespread media attention.

The other two were downed in Alaska and Yukon, Canada.

All three were reported to be smaller than the Chinese balloon, which measured 200 feet tall, according to US General Glen D. VanHerck.

The balloon carried an underslung payload described as a 'technology bay' that was roughly the size of two to three school buses.

It flew across North America from January 28 to February 4, 2023, passing over Alaska, western Canada and the contiguous US before it was shot down by the US Air Force off the coast of South Carolina.

Analysis of the debris determined that the balloon carried intelligence-gathering equipment, but it did not appear to have sent information back to China.

The three UFO incidents that followed did not appear to be related to the Chinese balloon, and there was no evidence to suggest that they were surveillance vehicles from any other country, President Joe Biden stated on February 16.

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[nivek]

Bombshell video shows UFO swarm 'completely unaffected' by missile attack outside military base​

A swarm of UFOs that were completely unaffected after being hit by missiles outside of an Afghanistan military base was caught on a jaw-dropping video (on the link).

On Friday, 'The UFOs subeddit' - a forum for UFO discussions where people can talk about sightings, experiences, news and investigations - shared the full 10-minute version of the infamous video.

The video begins with the camera scanning the flat land outside of the military base before zooming up on the distant mountains, where four black dots hovering in the sky can be seen.

A few moments later, the camera captured the mysterious orbs more closely - and it appeared as though they were dripping fuel beneath them.

A short-range missile could then be seen entering the frame from the top right before striking through two of the levitating orbs - seemingly ripping right through them.

The dots appeared to explode after being struck, but the debris seemed to quickly dissipate into the air revealing the orbs were actually unharmed.

Many viewers of the footage initially believed that the peculiar dots were either training targets or flares.

But just as the video time stamp neared the six-minute mark, the camera switched from FLIR - a type of camera that uses thermal imaging to create an infrared image of a scene - to normal vision.

The quick camera switch revealed the orbs as glowing multi-colored dots that rigidly moved in a spatial relationship with each other.

Bright pink, orange, purple and yellow colors pulsated from the orbs as they slowly moved in unison around the sky.

Hundreds of Reddit users took to the comments to share their reactions - many admitting they had seen something similar.

'Myself and one other saw exactly this in Afghanistan,' one user wrote. 'The difference was they shot up into the sky in sequence one after another. We both acknowledged what we saw and agreed we wouldn't tell anyone else because we'd get laughed at.'

The user then singled out the commenters who believed the dots were flares, noting that when he experienced something similar he initially thought the same thing himself.

'Four illuminated dots appeared in the sky and moved down in unison, descended slowly,' he added. 'They then stopped around 100-150 meters altitude and hovered for a couple minutes, looking like they were moving in small circles.'

'They then gained elevation faster than anything I've ever seen move (literally it was like a streak of light). They disappeared either through cloud cover or the lights were put out.'

'My eyes were opened to a few things that night and I became a more open minded person,' he wrote.

(Much more on the link)

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[pigfarmer]

Canadian MP Larry Maguire Urges Canadians to Sign UAP Transparency Petition - The Debrief

Screenshot

Canadian MP Larry Maguire Urges Canadians to Sign UAP Transparency Petition​

Chrissy Newton·November 22, 2024

A new petition is urging the Canadian government to establish a national task force and standardized protocols for UAP investigations, advocating transparency, public trust, and international collaboration.

Conservative party member Larry Maguire is no stranger to actively petitioning the Canadian government for UAP transparency. Recently, Maguire published a petition on the Canadian Parliament of Canada House of Commons Chamber website, asking Canadians to sign a UAP transparency petition before Jan 19 at 2:17 p.m. EST.

Labeled as e-5178 (National defence and military operations) and initiated by Benjamin Bruce Schofield from Winnipeg, Manitoba, the petition sponsored by Maguire establishes the grounds for why they are asking Canadians to take action. These include recent discussions about Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) highlight the need for a coordinated and transparent approach in Canada, and how UAP-related information is scattered across departments, leading to inconsistent responses.

“I was approached by Benjamin Schofield who initiated the petition and I agreed to act as its official parliamentary sponsor,” Maguire told The Debrief. “It’s great to see some grassroots advocacy on this topic and it ultimately aligns well with my long-standing efforts to push for UAP transparency.”

The petition also argues that Canadian allies, like the United States, have made significant strides with dedicated offices and public reporting mechanisms, and Canada could benefit from similar efforts to enhance national security, public safety, and scientific understanding.

Both Maguire and Schofield advise that the citizens of Canada should call on the government to take action regarding UAP, urging the establishment of a National Task Force on UAPs, comprising representatives from the Department of National Defence, Transport Canada, Public Safety Canada, and scientific experts, to investigate, analyze, and publicly report UAP activities. They also request the development of standardized protocols for UAP reporting and investigation to ensure timely information sharing across government and scientific bodies for consistent and effective responses, and advocate for creating a secure, centralized public reporting system for UAPs that is accessible to all Canadians and has regular updates to promote transparency and public trust.

“In general, Canadians want their government to be transparent, and this extends to UAP,” Maguire said. “I’ve heard from folks across the country who want some forward momentum on determining the origin and intent of UAP. In order to achieve this, we need the coordinated and transparent approach this petition calls for.”

The petition also calls for active engagement in international collaborations for UAP research and study, leveraging collective expertise and data from allied nations to better understand these phenomena.

“I have always been clear that our current approach to UAP monitoring is haphazard and leaves too much room for speculation,” Maguire said. “At the end of the day, the main call behind this petition is for a coordinated and transparent approach to determine the origin and intent of UAPs.”

Asked whether he was concerned about potential stigma or skepticism surrounding UAP research, and what approaches might be most effective in addressing it, Maguire said that he feels more work is needed to help overcome stigmas that currently still hamper UAP reporting.
“Stigma has always played a role in limiting the advancement of important research on this topic. As more and more reputable individuals come forward and share what they know, such as the recent congressional hearings in the US, the public will have more opportunities to engage with the facts and reconsider how they might view this issue,” Maguire said.

“In Canada, this will hopefully include recommendations from the Chief Science Advisor’s upcoming Sky Canada Project,” he added.
MP Larry Maguire is the second Canadian politician to step forward and actively ask for government UAP transparency since Former Minister of Defense Paul Hellyer went public in 2005 with his positions on the issue, which included his belief that the U.S. government and other world powers have had ongoing interactions with extraterrestrials

Starting in 2021, Maguire has called for further investigation into UAPs and advocated for an official response from the Canadian government to address the potential national security implications.

“Transparency is important to all of us,” Maguire told The Debrief. “We should expect our public institutions to coordinate with one another and be transparent with the public in general, but especially when we’re talking about UAP reports in our skies.”
“The excessive secrecy is absurd,” Maguire also said. “By making information publicly available, it will help scientists and researchers analyze the data and cross reference it with other opensource material.”

“A scientific plan and adopting best practices within government are important for building public trust,” Maguire said.

This article was updated on 11/23/24 to include statements from MP Larry Maguire.